Rescue personnel are often required to provide rescue services to retrieve distressed persons from water based hazards. Life guards, fishing vessel personnel, public safety officials (e.g., police officers and fire department personnel), and others must act quickly to rescue distressed persons before they succumb to exhaustion, hypothermia, or other risks associated with water survival. These risks may be amplified further if the distressed individual is unable to swim or tires easily, and thus rescue personnel may risk their own safety in order to rescue those at risk of harm.
Certain environmental conditions may further impede rescue efforts, such as heavy seas, frigid water temperatures, fast moving currents, and other environmental risks. These environmental hazards may increase the risk of harm to both the rescuer and the person in distress. Moreover, in many circumstances a person may be at risk of drowning while professional safety officers are not available to rescue the person in distress. For example, passenger airplane water landings may expose many individuals to a risk of drowning, particularly when the airplane lands in a low-temperature body of water. In many cases these airplanes land in bodies of water far removed from highly populated areas, and consequently ground-based rescue personnel may not arrive at the scene of the crash for an extended period of time after the aircraft enters the body of water. Thus, untrained and potentially injured passengers or crew members may seek to provide aid to others involved in the crash, and thus these individuals may reenter an area of danger after reaching safety.
Accordingly, new methods and systems for providing lifesaving equipment to persons in distress are needed.